I started off talking about the handling charge but went so much further.

The following is from CGC directly.

CGC has announced its revised services and fees schedule that will go into effect January 1, 2012. These changes constitute the first comprehensive revision to CGC's price schedule since May 2009. A $5 handling charge per submission invoice has also been added to all grading submissions.

The rest is from me......save all hate and verbal venom till after the entry please

Other than we are taking $5 from you this is vague. Being in a shipping and receiving department for eleven years we charged a shipping and handling fee on all packaged that left the warehouse. The earlier part of our shipping experience was through UPS, We shipped everything through them unless it was a P.O. Box or A.P.O/F.P.O. These we used the USPS. We made a profit on the item we sold, in the case of CGC, the slab, and then we added the shipping and handling. In our case depending on where we shipped throughout the country we made a small profit on this between .25 to about a $1 per box, on the shipping alone.

The handling charge was something different. This fee was a solid $5 per order. By the way I left shipping as an occupation almost ten years ago. Some of the boxes were about a pound in weight. Other orders were closer to ten, but the average was around five to six. What was the $5 used for if we were already were making a small profit on the shipping, not to mention the profit on the item we sold.

Math time.... Correct me if I am wrong, but let's say CGC ships out a 100 orders in one week. That handling charge on each of those orders brings in $500. So what are they going to use that $500 for? We have no idea how large some of those orders are. Like most of you here I have ordered from Word Wide Comics. An order for them could be 100 comics in a week; Comics to Astonish in Maryland also 100 books. Then there might be someone like us.....three books, and so on and so on we get charged the same $5.

I am not going to say that money is going to a grader but these boxes that come to us with our prizes seem to be pretty damn sturdy. Much better than what we get through eBay or the USPS priority boxes. In fact the twenty I sent to CGC were sent back in one of the boxes they sent me. There were many times that we would send out a new package in a reused cardboard box. The boxes they sent us are new and most likely need to be special ordered hence why a handling charge is needed. Sure the boxes don't cost them that much.....Guesstimating the boxes probably cost anywhere .48 to a $1.50. Then there is the packing material and the tape to seal the boxes. Did I mention the delivery charge for those boxes? They also come flat so they will need to store them to which amounts to rental space.

This is all speculation on this $5 handling charge. Does it bother me? Yes. Will I stop sending in books to CGC? Eventually after I get my two graded sets I want. Will I jump Ship to PGX? NO. I have written that they are cheaper, that they are rumored to have better slabs but look at the market for these. Jump on EBay. Enter CGC --PGX and it (for those people that try to get more hits by adding "CGC It") then enter PGX -- CGC and see the difference. The difference is over 35,000 (as of this writing, closer to 40,000 if truth be told).

I am more upset that my 9.8 book I sent in is comic back a 9.4, or the other one a 9.6. I will pick this apart little by little, but others have mentioned about the fast track, Thank you Ipersky about spending ten dollars extra a book just for quicker service. Imagine being in line at McDonalds and for $1 more you get your cheeseburger first. I am patient. I have no problem waiting for my books, nor do I have problem when someone is willing to pay more to get their books faster. You should see what I pay at Wizard World in Philadelphia to get them back the same weekend.

There is one other $5 charge, for the book's photo. This should be made free of charge. Once the package is shipped send a file attachment with the tracking number so we get a glimpse of what is coming back. Imagine the excitement of putting our books up on the registry before we even get them and we don't have to scan them ourselves or try to take a picture without a mirror image of the camera, or a flash, or blurred image.

I have spent $100 a book on signature series New Mutants. Hell I spent $160 on an annual, but these were 9.8 in grade. I would have a hard time paying that much for a 4.5. By the way....My 4.5 New Mutants #15 was graded at a Wizard World, cost $24, add the cost of getting the book signed and graded again add $27 and then to ship it there and back with insurance let's add $5 and that brings the book to $57. The book is worthless to anyone else but me. Why CGC? I chose because of these journals, because of the registry, because of the supply and demand, and because of you the reader of this journal.

I hated the idea of a graded book when I first heard about them. I thought how dare they and then I was phased out of collecting by parenthood, lack of funds, and space. Then I started to collect again and CGC already had its teeth in the market. I bought a few as a novelty but then my love for the hobby redoubled with getting a 9.8 New Mutants #1 and I have been hooked since.

I apologize to all reading this. I wanted my thoughts written out and backed by 100 percent fact and not speculation. Everyone is upset because they have been late, and now they want more money. The problem is CGC warrants it. Even if CGC loses let's say 1000 of the 2500 registry users they will still be ahead. Five books this year sold for over a million dollars, one of those five sold for over two. With that kind of publicity more and more people will flock to CGC. And let's face it some collectors don't even show their prizes on the site. I don't man any obscure sets either.

My greatest example is New Mutants #1 in a Gem Mint 10. There are two of them and only one on the registry. Where is the other? I would love to buy it. Dealers are constantly sending in books that they wouldn't be able to get $5 before because now they are getting $50, and $75, $100 and more. Signature series books from the mid eighties reaching $250. Not to mention Sub-Mariner #38 that sold for $675. Will that even be on the registry?

I am not trying to defend CGC, because I tend to think from time to time the heavy sellers get a better grade for the amount that is sent in. I feel that if my 9.8's were sent in through someone they deal with everyday for thousands of dollars, then they would probably still have that 9.8 status. I do my best to call it as I see it. Would I like to work for CGC, sure why not? Do I realize I wouldn't be able to collect anymore....yup and I am OK with that but I would then do my best for the company and for the collector because this hobby is meant to be fun and what I do OWE CGC is that they made it fun for me again.

Thanks for reading

Tnerb

PS the chat board journal will show different from this one but it was the only way I could circumnavigate around the inability to add a journal to the chat boards. Forgive me for this ruse.

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